Technology for diamond based electronics

Abstract

The superior electrical and thermal properties of diamond predestine this material to become an important semiconductor. In this thesis, diamond field effect transistors and diodes were fabricated and evaluated. The progress in fabrication technology enabled DC, small and large signal measurements on FETs employing a hydrogen-induced p-type channel. Operation of such FETs at microwave frequencies showed high cut-off frequencies and first power measurements on diamond FETs have been performed as well. Regarding the diodes, in order to obtain high blocking voltages and low forward losses in power diodes, a novel diamond merged diode has been developed. In this configuration, a Schottky contact and a pn junction are merged together, resulting in a diode with low forward threshold voltage, low reverse leakage current and high breakdown voltage. These results indicate that diamond may indeed become the ultimate semiconductor material for high performance electronics.